Meghan Markle was noticeably absent when Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth II hosted President Trump and first lady Melania for lunch at the palace during a recent state visit — but it was nothing personal.
According to British royal expert and author Katie Nicholl, a source close to the Duchess of Sussex insists the media got it all wrong.
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“Had Meghan not been on maternity leave, she would have been there alongside Harry,” claimed the source, Nicholl told Vanity Fair. “There was no snub, this wasn’t personal. She would never let personal feelings come in the way of duty.”
During the Trumps’ visit in early June, Harry, 34, attended the official functions while his wife stayed out of the picture. This quickly led to speculation she had intentionally avoided the U.S. president, who called her “nasty” for having once labeled him “misogynistic” and “divisive.”
However, the source told Nicholl the 37-year-old was still recovering after giving birth to her firstborn, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, on May 6. While Markle made an appearance at Trooping the Colour and, more recently, at the London Stadium for the first Major League Baseball game played in Europe, she won’t go back to work full-time until later in the year.
And one person who is impressed by Markle's work drive is Harry’s grandmother, the queen of England.
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“The queen has been astonished and very impressed by Meghan’s work drive,” a royal source told Nicholl. “There’s a feeling that Meghan likes to be busy and must be kept busy. She’s very driven."
In June, Trump sat down with Piers Morgan for ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” and clarified controversial comments concerning the former American actress.
Trump said he wasn't calling Markle nasty but rather was just surprised to hear her comments about him, including her assertion that if he became president it would force Americans to relocate to Canada.
"I wasn’t referring to 'she’s nasty.' I said she was nasty about me. And essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me," Trump told Morgan in the interview.
In an interview with President Trump, a reporter for U.K.’s The Sun read aloud to him comments from a 2016 interview in which Markle accused him of being “misogynistic” and “divisive” during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“I’m voting for Hillary Clinton, not because she is a woman, but because Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world that he’s painting,” Markle said in an interview on "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" while promoting her television series, "Suits."
“I didn’t know that," Trump said of her comments when asked about them, The Sun reported. "What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty."
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The president and first lady visited Britain on a three-day trip with Elizabeth, 93, hosting the two at Buckingham Palace. Trump and Melania, 49, toured the Churchill War Rooms and had dinner with Charles, 70, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, 71.
Despite Markle's absence, Trump insisted that there was no tension between him and her husband Harry.
"I congratulated him and I think he’s a terrific guy," Trump told ITV. "The royal family is really nice."
"In fact, he spent a lot of time talking to [my daughter] Ivanka and talking to my family. I went up — he couldn’t have been nicer."
Trump went on to praise Markle, saying: “You know what? She’s doing a good job, I hope she enjoys her life. ... I think she’s very nice.”
Fox News' Vandana Rambaran contributed to this report.